


Boys Don't Cry

by TabisMouse



Category: EXO (Band), 룸메이트 | Roommate (TV)
Genre: 90's Music, 90s AU, F/M, Friendship, High School, M/M, Rocker Chanyeol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-14
Updated: 2016-11-14
Packaged: 2018-08-31 00:08:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8555035
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TabisMouse/pseuds/TabisMouse
Summary: Yeolie is a typical 90s kid with a case of hero worship.





	

He was so damn close. He stroked a few more times, eyes screwed shut and teeth tearing into his bottom lip. He focused on the image seared into his mind, a memory only minutes old. Close, close. 

“ _ Your hands are so big, Yeolie, _ ” Rosaline’s giggle intruded on his memory as he came, stomach crashing through the floor. 

He leaned forward and tore of a hand-full of toilet paper, cleaning himself off and tossing it in the toilet to join his mess. He sighed as he leaned forward to flush. Second time today her voice had fucked him up, he counted. Third time this week. He punched the wall with his wet hand as he left the restroom.  _ Fuck her _ , he told himself, trying to stop thinking her name on endless repeat. 

In his room, he wiggled the mouse on his computer and the window stopped dancing across his screen. He checked to make sure his Super-Secret porn folder had been closed the entire time he’d been in the restroom and shut off the machine. He threw himself on the bed. Rolled over to stare at his posters. Rolled back to stare at his guitar. He sat up. He had to get out of the house. 

He grabbed his walkman from his desk and unthreaded the headphones to sling them around his neck. Maybe this year for his birthday he’d finally get that discman he’d been begging for. Not that he had any CDs. Still, though. He checked to see what mix was in the walkman and shoved it into his pocket. Just before he left, he reached and grabbed his guitar by the neck. Coffee sounded like a good idea. 

“Ma- I’m going out,” Chanyeol yelled as he thundered down the stairs. 

“Ya!” His mother yelled out as she came out from the kitchen. “You don’t stay out too late! Just because it is summer vacation doesn’t mean you can be out to all hours of the night like some hoodlum.

“And if you see that sister of yours you tell her to come to dinner tomorrow night!” Chanyeol slipped into his shoes and tried not to roll his eyes as his mother’s nagging washed over him. “I will never understand why she has to move out to go across the street to college. The least she could do is have one meal with us a week.” His mother moved to attempt to smooth his hair. “Who knows what she’s eating in that  _ apartment _ of hers.” Her mouth twisted around the word apartment like it was dirty. 

Chanyeol pulled back and ruffled his hair back up. “Ma!”

“Alright, alright,” she huffed. “You tell her, though.” She moved one hand back up to defeat all of Chanyeol’s hard work on his hair. “And be home before ten!” she scolded. 

“Okaaay,” he sighed and turned to walk out the door. “Moms,” he grumped under his breath, but only from the safety of his driveway. 

He adjusted the guitar strap over his shoulder and pushed it so the guitar lay flat across his back, neck down. He brought his headphones up to his ear, snaked fingers into his pocket and pushed play. Evening wafted around him, the long day stretching towards twilight. He chased his long shadow as he trotted down the street, sun warming the backs of his bare arms. 

J&B Coffee was only a few blocks down - 3 songs away to be exact. He stood in front of the counter, waiting for his order when an aproned employee broomed past him. He reached out to ruffle the shaved side of her hair and she smacked at him. 

“Mom says to come to dinner tomorrow,” he said.

A hand smacked at the back of his head and his sister smiled at him. “Ya! Yoora!” He yelped and rubbed away at the sting. 

“Whatever,” she muttered and walked away, smile still tweaking the corners of her mouth. She grabbed a cup from the overweight manager behind the counter and turned to Chanyeol. 

“Little Shit,” she mock-read from the cup. 

“Whatever,” Chanyeol parroted her and took his coffee. “Your boyfriend’s out there,” he said, nodding to the outside tables and benches where a guy sat in the shade of a large tree, strumming a guitar, long hair spilling over his shoulders and half-shrouding his face.

“Ex,” she corrected, rolling her eyes at him and disappearing to the back storeroom. 

“ _ Ex,”  _ Chanyeol mimicked to himself, pulling a face.  _ Sisters _ , he thought from the safety of his own mind. He decided to sit outside.

Sungwoo Shin looked up as he pulled a chair across the concrete, fingers still strumming away to “Wonderwall”. Chanyeol flipped the guitar around to cradle in his lap, cup left to cool on a table as he strummed along. Sungwoo smiled and bobbed his head in time to the beat. They played the song through together, unspeaking. 

“Sorry - hope you don’t mind,” Chanyeol said, reaching for his cup when the song finished.

“Naw, man, it’s cool,” Sungwoo said, hand coming up to push his hair back. “‘S’all good.” He reached for his own cup and Chanyeol picked at his guitar. 

“Another?” Chanyeol asked. Sungwoo nodded into his drink. Chanyeol strummed the opening bars to “Boys Don’t Cry” and Sungwoo smiled, coming in with the lead right on time. 

“ _ I would say, I’m sorry/ If I thought that it would change your mind- _ ” Sungwoo sang.

“ _ But I know that this time /I’ve said too much /Been too unkind, _ ” Chanyeol continued.

“ _ I try to laugh about it/ Cover it all up with lies. _ ”

“ _ I try to laugh about it/ Hiding the tears in my eyes. _ ”

And then in unison they sang, “ _ Cause boy’s don’t cry- _ ”

“Good song,” Sungwoo said as they finished. 

“Yeah-”

Chanyeol looked down the street where the sun was inching towards sunset. “ _ Am I as pretty as a sunset, Yeolie? _ ” The memory of Rosaline’s voice left a bitter taste in his mouth. “Girls, man,” he whispered, half to himself.

“Girl trouble?” Sungwoo asked. Chanyeol shrugged and the two sat in silence, strumming random chords on their guitars. 

“I mean-” Chanyeol said after several minutes, “how can she say she likes me one night and do -  _ those  _ \- things and then the next day it's all ‘he wants me back and I really love him and you’re nice and all and’-” Chanyeol kicked at the table. “It’s all bullshit.”

“Yeah that’s bullshit,” Sungwoo agreed. He reached into a pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. He offered one to Chanyeol but he shook his head. He lit up and took a long drag then set it down on an ash tray. “Pearl Jam?” He asked and Chanyeol nodded, gripping his guitar like a life-saver.

They played together as the sun set, song after song. Sometimes they sang, sometimes they didn’t. Sometimes they paused to drink or smoke or watch the disappearing sun. Sometimes they moved from one song to the next in smooth succession, each following when the other chose to lead. It was the first time they’d ever played together but for a brief hour Chanyeol felt himself sync with everything around him, locked into the music at his fingertips.

The sun was gone, street lights beginning to flicker on when Chanyeol stood to stretch. “I gotta get home or mom’s gonna shit a brick.”

“Hey, I’ll walk with you,” Sungwoo said. They tossed their drinks and walked around to the back of the shop, deciding to take the alley back. 

“You play pretty good, kid,” Sungwoo said. Chanyeol’s flush was hidden by the darkness. He would never tell that idol-worship of his big sister’s too-cool boyfriend was the reason he’d picked up the instrument to begin with. 

“Thanks,” he said, keeping his voice even. They walked in silence for a block or so. 

“Sorry about your chick, man,” Sungwoo said.

“Yeah, I don’t know. We were just ‘talking’ but - I thought she liked me.” Chanyeol shrugged. “But her asshole ex snaps his fingers and off she went. Whatever.”

“Yeah.”

“You and Yoora seem to be getting along,” Chanyeol hazarded. 

“Well, it’s been a year,” Sungwoo said. “And what am I to say when she says she’s a lesbian. I think she’s got a girlfriend but she’s hiding it.”

_ Girlfriend _ . Chanyeol let that thought sink in. So far he was the only family member his sister had come out to.

“How your parents doing?” Chanyeol asked, changing the subject. Sungwoo’s family had lived around the block for all of living memory until last summer, when his father had gotten a job across state. 

“Fine, I guess,” Sungwoo shrugged. He moved ahead of Chanyeol to open the back gate to the house. 

“Yeah,” Chanyeol muttered. They walked through the yard and Sungwoo split off to the over-garage apartment door at the back of the house. He’d moved in when his parents left. Housing around campus was expensive and he apparently hadn’t seen any reason to reject his girlfriend’s parents offer of a cheap apartment in University Terrace even after she’d become an ex.

“Look-” he said before he closed his door. Chanyeol stopped to look at Sungwoo. “If you ever wanna chat - girl trouble or just hang out or whatever. My door’s always open, kid.”

Chanyeol ducked his head. “Sure. Thanks,” he said and walked towards his own back door. 

**Author's Note:**

> There was always supposed to be more to this. I don't know if I will ever be able to write it.


End file.
